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Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs

Open access
Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe), Cuevas, Leslie M., Chong, Sze Man, Lim, Heejin·2020·Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
DOI 10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102133
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Abstract

Abstract While the literature related to this topic has predominantly focused on investigating the influence mechanism that social media influencers (SMIs) impose over their followers, less is known about their attachment mechanism. Given that social media platforms were originally designed to facilitate personal bonding and not product or brand recommendations, we posited that social media followers' emotional attachment to SMIs is an important precedent that affects the followers' behavioral inclination to accept the SMIs' endorsements. We thus drew new attention to the relationship between SMIs and their followers by focusing on their attachment development mechanism and its casual factors and effects. In doing so, Study 1 inductively analyzed the key causal factors, both with respect to SMI persona- and content-driven attributes, that make followers feel attached to SMIs. By integrating the findings of Study 1 with the human brand theory, Study 2 provided empirical evidence after analyzing 325 U.S. consumers' responses about how SMIs' personas (i.e., inspiration, enjoyability, and similarity) and content curation abilities (i.e., informativeness) affected followers to perceive the SMIs as human brands who fulfill their needs for ideality, relatedness, and competence—all of which resulted in an intense attachment to SMIs. It was this positive emotion shaped with SMIs that transferred to SMIs’ endorsements and positively influenced the followers to acquire the products/brands that the SMIs recommended.

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Metadata

Authors
Ki, C.-W. (., Cuevas, L. M., Chong, S. M., & Lim, H.
Venue
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-07
Volume
55
Pages
102133
ISSN
0969-6989 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102133
OpenAlex
W3021455546
Cited by
693
References
17
FWCI
95.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green
Licence
  • www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
  • www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
Funders
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102133
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Ki, C.-W. (., Cuevas, L. M., Chong, S. M., & Lim, H. (2020). Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102133

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